Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Queen Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the pudding
Combine bread crumbs, nut milk or hot water, egg yolks, and flavoring in a bowl.
Bake the mixture until set.
Top and serve
Whip the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding sugar.
Spread jelly or jam over the baked pudding.
Top with the whipped egg whites and return to the oven until slightly browned.
Serve cold or cool.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + vanillatop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together497 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Form the body of the pudding and soak up the liquid to set into a soft custard.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the mixture and help it set when baked, giving a tender, custardy texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the topping its light structure and lets it brown.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the meringue topping and helps it hold its stiff, glossy structure.
- Nut milk or hot water
- Moistens the bread crumbs so they soften and combine into a pudding base.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites need to be beaten to a firm foam with sugar added gradually, so the topping holds its shape and browns evenly rather than weeping or collapsing in the oven.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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